1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a remote control mechanism and, more particularly, to a remote controlled outside rearview mirror assembly, a mirror body of which can be manually folded forwardly or rearwardly of a vehicle and can be smoothly folded even when an external shock is applied.
2. Prior Art
The remote controlled outside rearview mirror assembly is usually mounted on the outer side of a vehicle door. The assembly has a mechanism, with which the reflection angle of a mirror panel in the mirror body can be controlled mechanically through a link by tilting a control lever provided in a compartment.
With such a rearview mirror assembly, the area of the mirror tends to be increased for ensuring a wide rearview range. Consequently, the free end of the mirror body projects from each side way of the vehicle to a great extent and is liable to be touched by an object or a man to cause an accident.
Further, the projecting mirror body portion constitutes an increase of the loadage when the vehicle is transported, thus increasing the transportation cost. Further, it constitutes an obstacle when the vehicle is stored in a garage. To solve the above problems, it has been in practice to held in folding the mirror body forwardly or rearwardly of the vehicle and thus accommodate the mirror body within the outermost line of the vehicle body. Such a rearview mirror assembly is disclosed in Deutsche Auslegeschrift No. 2,916,686. With the prior art foldable rearview mirrors, however, it is very difficult to obtain adaptability of the mirror body with a remote control mechanism therefor because of a large folding angle of the mirror body. When adjusting the reflection angle of the mirror panel, the control lever is turned about a shaft vertically and/or laterally. The mirror panel, however, has to be controlled to a necessary angle when the control lever is moved lightly and by a small angle. The control lever is usually designed such that it can be swung vertically or laterally by approximately 16.degree. from its neutral position. However, the mirror body of the foldable rearview mirror assembly is folded to be inside the outermost line of the vehicle body beyond the maximum tilting angle of the control lever. Therefore, there is a design difficulty if it is intended to assemble the remote control mechanism in the mirror body in such a manner that the link is not broken and that the folding of the mirror body is not obstructed. For this reason, it has been proposed to permit adjustment of the reflection angle of the mirror by using a remote controlled mechanism including a three joint link motion having particular structure and length as disclosed in the Deutsch Auslegeschrift described above or an electric remote control mechanism containing a power unit. These remote control mechanisms needs special and expensive link mechanism or motordriven power unit, so that they have some problems to be improve such that they require high costs of manufacture, they consists of large numbers of components and are complicated in structure, and they require comparatively large assembly spaces.